Hola! My name is Lupe and I am a Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal-based, Argentinean art director, graphic designer, researcher and design thinker. My work is situated at the intersection of design practices with issues of power, identity and politics.

I hold a BFA from Concordia University (Double Major in Design and Philosophy), and a Permaculture Design Certificate. At present, I am back at Concordia pursuing a Master of Design (MDes).

Since 2016 I have been a member of co-design studio And Also Too, where I work to this day alongside amazing people who challenge me and inspire me every day.

MY WORK

Jauria is the platform from which I offer my freelance services as a designer for social justice. It’s the result of years of learning from brave and talented friends and allies, combined with the wicked questions of my studies in philosophy and design theory.

My work seeks to support the efforts of community organizers, activists, artists and researchers in the making of a more just world. Yet it’s more than working exclusively with groups invested in social, cultural, humanitarian or environmental causes.

DESIGNING FOR SOCIAL CHANGE

To be a designer for social change is to actively listen and critically act upon areas and structures of oppression, starting with ourselves and with our own practice.

In other words, it is about becoming interrogators of our own subjectivities, our own work, and the design process itself.

Tackling the systemic nature of injustice and the normative effects of power is a call to re-think traditional design methods and tools, for these are exclusionary at their core and thus reproduce the problem.

This is why the urgency of building a better world must align with a critical design process. To me, this means working collaboratively through an anti-oppression practice based on design justice principles. For this, I follow the inspiring philosophy of And Also Too.

WHAT I BELIEVE IN

I work with communities with powerful voices crucial to the design process. Their knowledge and skills are vital for designing alternatives that truly speak to their causes.

Our exchanges take place in the form of brainstorming meetings, play sessions and thematic workshops. These encounters and group exercises are meant to bring our forces together in designing new visual languages for social change, moving away from the idea of a “messianic” designer who provides a ready-made solution to a passive client.

Want to know more about this process? Ready to work together on a new project? Then I’d love to hear from you!